I'm a newish player, and was recently using Hector for the first time. I fired at my (more experienced) opponent's trooper who was in partial cover with his Plasma Rifle, and they said something that doesn't seem right to me, that against Plasma Cover only provides its +3 bonus to one of either ARM or BTS, since the bonus is always talked about as an ARM/BTS bonus, and / means or, not and. I tried to disagree with him, that it's not an exclusive or but an inclusive one, so it can apply to both if it's relevant - or, not xor, to use the terms I know from programming, but eventually bowed to the voice of experience. Were they right? Does Plasma mean that the wall you're hiding behind only benefits you for one of the two rolls? Or were they misinterpreting it? They weren't playing CA, so it's not like they were interpreting it for their benefit or anything - indeed, it meant they lost a few models to Hector that they otherwise might not have. But it still doesn't seem correct.
I Thought if you are using the impact template there would be no cover mod at all due to it bing a template. Thats part of the beauty of Plasma. 1 armor and one bts and no cover mods= dead guys all over the place.
Yeah, it would've been like that if I had've been smart enough to do the numbers and use the Impact Template, but I was using Hit Mode for the extra damage, even though the template would've been better - I mentioned I was new to the game, right? I sometimes have a similar problem with BSGs and using the AP mode instead of the Template mode against heavily-armoured targets in cover, even though the -3 from ignoring cover is better than what AP gives me. My brain just defaults to 'big tough thing? AP rounds!' instead of 'thing in cover? Ignore the cover!" I'm currently retraining it, but it's a work in progress.
In any case, if, for some reason, you fire Plasma on hit mode at a target in partial cover, they will gain +3 to both their ARM and BTS.
No problem here :) As a rule of thumb, templates are king just because it ignores the ARM/BTS bonus from cover, even if it does not hit another target. The only exceptions are if: _ you shoot at a lone troop without cover (or impetuous since it prevents them from taking cover) _ you shoot at a heavy TAG (ARM 8 or more) and you have an AP mode (ex missile launcher, boarding shotgun ...) _ you can't use a template without hitting your own troop or something As you can see, plasma is one of the deadliest weapons in the game - a single order may force the opponent to take up to 3 (4 in fireteam) ARM and BTS rolls without cover bonus
